A clean kitchen

I visited my parents for a week in February and it was wonderful. My mom had the week off and we spent time shopping for baby clothes and maternity clothes, going on walks, and talking in the car. She cooked dinner for us and I was struck by how pleasant the kitchen was to be in, especially since my mom cleans the kitchen up right away after a meal. After a vacation is frequently a good time for me to make changes to my daily routine, so I decided that I would try to keep my kitchen cleaned right away after I made a mess.

It's been two weeks and I love how my kitchen feels less like an energy-draining clutterfest and more like a place where I can make anything I want. Sometimes I will actually make something without it feeling like a huge ordeal since I get to start with a clean kitchen. I'm less resentful of my own messes when I'm still enjoying the food that made the mess (there's nothing worse than scrubbing curry out of a pan when you've already eaten all the leftovers). And since my new rule is "clean it right away" I don't have the option to do it later or procrastinate it.

Another habit I started after my vacation was making a "power hour" list of non-repetitive chores that I want to do at some point, with the goal of working on something from the list each day. I have a lot of non-repetitive chores at the moment since I need to clear out the upstairs room for the new nursery. So far I've gone through lots of old files and shredded many of them, I've gotten rid of a huge desk, and I've moved some stuff around (some of it is just going downstairs and some of it is in my "donate" pile). I like having the list because if I think of something, instead of having it hanging over me as all this stuff I'm meaning to get around to, I can break it up into smaller chunks and feel like I've worked on something (even though I'm still sleeping about 10 hours a day and I need to take lots of breaks). I still don't know where to put some things, like all my scouting stuff, but I know it's an issue I want to work out so hopefully I can think of a solution while I'm doing other things.